A Sage in the Making
by Myaru
Summary: Raine faces the terrifying prospect of teaching for the first time in Iselia, and Genis isn't about to make it easy for her.


**A Sage in the Making  
>By:<strong> Myaru

_For Manna. Also my first time writing Raine and Lloyd, but I'm not too familiar with Genis either. _

…

* * *

><p>Iselia was cool, shady, and welcoming once Raine introduced herself as a full-blooded elf and the town guards' arrows lowered, pointed back toward the ground. Her heart jolted in her chest when she told the lie, her face stiff in an effort to remain neutral, believable - but these people had never seen a real elf. They didn't know the slant to her ears was all wrong, that Genis shouldn't be growing so fast at age six. She presented her teaching certificate to the elder and let herself be shuttled around town on a tour while Genis played a game with the children gathered in the town circle, jumping into circles scratched in the dirt. This was the general store, the watch tower, that dome showing between the trees, all the way up on the hillside - that was the Temple of Martel, Iselia's only claim to fame, where the Chosen of each generation received their revelations.<p>

By the time she entered the lodging Iselia's townspeople funded for their teachers, her face hurt from putting on so many smiles. Two beds huddled in the far corner, mattresses bare. There was a table, a shelf for books, more shelves for pantry items they didn't have yet. Genis dropped his pack on the floor in the middle of the room and said, "At least it isn't dusty like that dorm room we rented in Palmacosta."

"Yes, it seems they were prepared for our arrival." Raine lowered her luggage to the floor more gently - a sack for her books, a smaller pack like her brother's for everything else. She turned around, about to close the door behind her, and found herself staring across the yard. White butterflies flitted over the green mirror of a little ornamental pond. She'd never seen such nice facilities in a small town like this. "Who was that you were playing with on the green?"

"Lloyd. He says his dad is a dwarf. Can you believe that? I mean, he- he _isn't_, how does that even work?"

She left the door standing open for light and let Genis regale her with a litany of other names: Thomas, Michele, Lilia, Colette. Yeah, Colette the Chosen, standing off to the side by the school house. Lloyd just grabbed his hand and dragged him over to say hello. _You don't just walk up to the Chosen like that, geez - Lloyd's kinda dense, but really nice_...

While he talked, Genis put her books away in the wrong order, and Raine checked the cupboards to find linens in one, a pot in the other. She supposed a real teacher was supposed to bring more of her own belongings, but they didn't own anything they couldn't carry on their backs and run with. Even the books were an exception - treasures, purchased one by one from students who didn't need them anymore. Raine hoped she wouldn't have to leave them behind. A little place like this, so close to a human ranch and Desians that could show her for a lie at any time- she and Genis were here on borrowed grace.

The last of her books thumped onto the shelf. Raine carried the pot to their cold stove. "How do you feel about going shopping? I'll let you choose all the ingredients."

Her brother's energetic _yeah!_ lifted Raine's spirit.

...

* * *

><p>...<p>

The so-called non-aggression pact was the topic on every tongue when Iselia came up in conversation elsewhere in Sylvarant. _Lucky bastards_, someone always muttered; fires didn't raze the fields of Iselia. Their grapes were famous, their wines moderately acclaimed. To salvage the silence that followed after she'd asked about the pact, Raine claimed she had never tasted one of their vintages, and the shopkeep gave her a pat on the hand that afternoon and a gentle admonition to wait until she was older.

Genis snickered. Raine carried most of their groceries on her back - rice, flour, carrots, potatoes, grapes - and he swung two fresh quails by their tied feet while they walked back across town. A young mother gave them a sidelong glance; the watchmens' eyes followed them all the way home. _We don't look like Desians_, Genis muttered when they had closed the door and Raine piled wood beneath the stove for him to light with his magic. _They don't believe us, do they? They're going to wait until midnight and come in here_- and she told him to hush, to light the fire, unless he wanted to go hungry.

Iselia wasn't like that. Humans, in any case, couldn't read mana signatures. They would be fine.

As if to prove her right, the mayor's wife came by with a basket of cookies like Raine'd never seen before, cut into cute little shapes with fruit jam sandwiched between them and little cutouts on top. _For luck_, she said _The children can be a little- rambunctious_. After that came tins of dried apples, raisins, a fresh loaf of bread. They ate too much, and Raine listened to Genis toss and turn all night while she stared up at the ceiling. She waited for the sound of footsteps outside, rattling farm tools or weapons; nothing came, nor did she expect it. Her brother was still young, and his short memory was full of incidents like that - lies, rocks flying past their heads, shouts and slaps and punches. Hostile humans, even the weak ones, could be frightening when their faces twisted in response to the words _half-elf_. He'd seen so much of that, so little kindness, that she wondered sometimes if he would grow up to hate humans as much as the Desians did- if he would join them even, abandon her.

But children, she was starting to think, were scarier. In two days she would give her first class. Two days! It sounded so easy when she signed the papers in Palmacosta and got her permit. If Iselia had more than fifteen students Raine would be shocked, but- that was still fifteen children, when she was used to handling one.

Fifteen. _Fifteen_.

Oh, Martel help her. What if they didn't listen? What if- what if they were all like Genis?

Raine's mind wasn't cooperative that night; she woke the next morning from a dream of a class full of Genis clones interrupting her at every other word and waving their hands in the air to get her attention, me me mememe- She shuddered over her morning tea and dragged Genis to the school house to help her arrange the classroom. "You don't look so good," Genis said when they dodged inside the school building. "Did you give yourself nightmares?"

"What makes you think that?" The school house keys jingled against her side. Their footsteps sounded hollow on the floorboards, her own especially loud. Three doors, Raine counted, and the last one was theirs- hers. "I slept like a baby, thank you very much."

"Ha, liar!" Genis grabbed her keys and sprinted to the end of the hall, grinning over his shoulder. "I heard you whimpering when I woke up - oh no Genis, oh please just settle down already-"

Raine's face went hot. "You little-"

The door slammed open and bathed the hallway with white sunlight. Raine saw her shadow hunch and she glanced back to see who had saved Genis's bacon.

"Uh..." A little brown-haired boy shifted from one foot to another and scratched the back of his head. "Genis?"

"Lloyd!" Her brother came back to her, grabbed her hand. "This is who I talked about yesterday - his dad is a dwarf."

_I see_, Raine said, straightening. She grabbed her keys, smiled as wide as she could. "Can I help you?"

Lloyd wanted to play, and wanted Genis to go with him. She watched her brother bite his lip, felt him clutch her hand more tightly, until his nails made marks on her wrist. No one had ever invited him out like that before. _Go_ was on the tip of her tongue, and her arm was ready to push him forward when he said, "I- I'd really like to, but I promised I'd help Raine today. Um." Genis lowered his eyes. "Tomorrow?" He hesitated. "Maybe?"

Lloyd's dark brows beetled, but his chin snapped up again just as quickly as he'd let it fall. "I can help. How 'bout that? Then we can play after."

He looked so small in the blazing doorway, barely taller than Genis. Raine looked down at the glint on her brother's silver hair. "I appreciate the offer, but we have a lot of work to do. The room has to be scrubbed down-" Genis groaned, "and your mayor said a new chalkboard had to be put in-"

"The more hands the better," Genis muttered. "Right?"

Raine's lips thinned, and Lloyd snickered. They were getting along quite well, clearly. She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and thought: two of them, two energetic children. Was two anything on fifteen? "If you don't mind hauling water," she said, finally, with a sigh, "we'll need-"

"You won't be disappointed, Miss Sage!" Lloyd didn't even stop to hear how much. He turned and ran out- presumably to start right away.

Raine chewed the inside of her lip. _Miss Sage_? She was only twenty! "A bit impulsive, isn't he?"

Genis shrugged and jiggled the doorknob until she slapped his hand away and opened it, brass keys clattering against the door. "Maybe we'll get to meet his dad," he said, and led the way in.

Raine sneezed as soon as she entered. Sun streamed from the windows through a fine sheen of dirt. Dust danced in the air. Twenty desks and chairs were stacked in the corner by the chalkboard, waiting. _Twenty_?

Twenty, she concluded after her third count.

Genis stood on his tiptoes to look out the window, wiped it with his hand. It squeaked. Raine reached for his collar and plucked him back from the sill. "First things first," she said a bit too loudly, prodding Genis toward the cubbies in the back. "Mop and scrub brush. Go on!"

Her brother grumbled. Raine tried not to think about how badly her knees wanted to shake.

...

* * *

><p>...<p>

For the next two days Raine's dreams began with _Good morning, children. My name is_- and ended in noise; the chalk screeching across her new board with every stroke, desks breaking down into rubble and reforming into more children. The hallway from the front door to her classroom became a gauntlet of doors she recognized from other towns: Lumen, on the border of the desert around Triet; before that, a hamlet south of Asgard that was famed for its iron - and its pitchforks. The long dormitory hallways in Palmacosta, the corridors of classrooms and study rooms and testing rooms. They walked to school together on the third morning, she and Genis, and her palms kept sweating.

They were late, and only two children were left outside, running toward the door with their wooden lunch boxes tucked under their arms. _Told you I should've cooked breakfast_, Genis muttered, and Raine told him to hush. No one in their right mind would leave a six year old at the stove, no matter how precocious. He couldn't even see over the lip of their only pot.

She nudged Genis ahead of her and waited for him to enter. Everyone knew they were siblings, but entering hand-in-hand with her little brother might encourage teasing- of her or Genis, Raine couldn't decide, and didn't want to speculate. Children could be generous, open creatures, but also cruel and judgmental, the humans especially. Her footsteps thumped on the floor twice as loud when she made herself approach the classroom. Over and over in her mind, she repeated her introduction, then told herself to forget it, chastised herself because they must know her name, for pete's sake, if they were going to ask questions. Her legs wobbled as she walked in, her gaze fastened itself to the podium while twenty sets of eyes followed her and whispers died down. _Shhh, the teacher is here, tell me later. An elf? No way. For real_? Twenty, twenty-

Raine faced forward, a smile stretched across her face, and saw that only half the seats were filled. She almost gave thanks to Martel - not that ten was ideal. "My name is Raine Sage," she said abruptly. Her arms trembled. She hid her hands behind the podium, where someone had stacked her chalk into a neat pyramid. "Listen quietly while you're in class and we'll all get along."

Genis grimaced. Lloyd's eyes opened wide. The Chosen tilted her head, legs kicking back and forth.

Hm, was that too much? Raine took a deep breath. "Now, why don't we start with introductions."

Whether their rapt attention to her lessons was fear or interest, Raine couldn't tell. She lectured until her voice cracked, and then released everyone for lunch. The children bolted, clattering out of the room laughing and yelling, shoving. Instead of watching she looked out the window and fingered the edge of the podium. She was steadier now, but her whole body ached; her legs from standing for so long, her shoulders because of her stiff posture, her fingers from gripping the chalk too tightly. She'd broken two sticks already.

"Miss Sage?"

Raine looked down. Lloyd, barely tall enough for his head to clear the podium, grinned and offered her peaches, one in each hand.

"Colette wants you to have these," he said, and left them on the desk. In a lower voice he added, "She's really shy, so..." Lloyd shrugged and backed away, went back to the desk he shared with the Chosen. Colette hunched over her food, eyes hidden behind her bangs, but she looked up when he sat down again.

Raine chose a peach and breathed its scent. Ripe. Just perfect, from the feel. She wondered if it was a metaphor - or perhaps a sign of Martel's approval. An answer to her prayers, whatever they were, gibbered during her nightmares.

"Geez, Raine, terrorize the whole school why don't you."

She scowled down at her brother, who had come up to her desk when she wasn't looking. "If you don't watch your mouth," she said, lowering her hand, showing him the offering, "I'll make curry tonight." She hefted the fruit. "With these."

Genis made a strangled sound. Raine let victory charm her lips into a real smile.

...


End file.
